This invention relates to apparatus of feeding flat items such as envelopes, sheets of paper or folded bags and the like to a press having vacuum fingers for lifting each item and delivering it to a press.
Various feeders have been developed and are being marketed which provide a conveyor leading into a retard system where the items are metered and peeled off the top of a stack and delivered through the retard assembly individually to a position beneath the sucker fingers of the press whereat the fingers are lowered against the item and in timed sequence with the press feeders, the fingers lift the item and deliver the same to the press mechanism which grasps an edge of the item and wraps it about a driver which feeds it into the printer. This type of feeder is not only expensive but also invariably requires an operator to adjust various components of the feeder which must be accurately synchronized to obtain a proper feed in timed sequence with the pick up of the press. Particularly for an inexperienced operator this becomes frustrating. The previous designs require the attention of a seasoned operator to set up the equipment. Various attempts have been made to simplify the apparatus to obtain a low cost feeder.